Lane County’s largest nonprofit human services organization. St. Vincent de Paul accomplishes its mission through three core services areas: affordable housing, homeless and shelter services, and retail and manufacturing.
SVdP develops and maintains
sustainable recycling-based programs with a quadruple bottom line: They provide
quality goods and services; create job opportunities; generate revenue for
social service programs; and encourage environmental stewardship.
SVdP operates 14 (and counting) retail-thrift stores, mostly in Eugene-Springfield and Lane County, and sells books, jewelry and more through online storefronts — all of which create job opportunities, divert waste, and generate revenue to support social services programs.
· Book and magazine recycling: SVdP accepts donations of books and magazines, most of which end up on the well-stocked shelves of St. Vinnie’s retail thrift stores; those that aren’t reusable/resalable are recycled for their paper content.
· Candle Wax:Used candles are reclaimed to create new products, such as eco-fire, brick-o-wax, and skateboard wax.
· Mattress recycling and DR3: SVdP is a world leader in mattress recycling, with a facility in Eugene and one in California (DR3 Recycling) that deconstruct and recycle the components of more than 300,000 mattresses and box springs annually.
· Electronics recycling: A member of the Oregon E-Cycle Program, SVdP accepts most types of electronics for recycling, while reselling items of value at its thrift stores.
· Styrofoam recycling: Lane County’s only destination for recycling ubiquitous packaging material, SVdP shreds and compresses it into dense logs, making it more cost-effective to ship to recyclers.
· Car lot: SVdP has a vehicle donation program that accepts cars, trucks, motorcycles, RVs, boats and more; some are recycled, while those with the greatest usability and value left in them are sold at SVdP’s used-car lot in Eugene.
· Appliance sales & recycling: SVdP accepts appliance donations; repairs and refurbishes those that can be resold in its stores; and recycles those that cannot be repaired. SVdP staff refurbish hundreds of donated appliances every year, then resell them at St. Vinnie’s stores for affordable prices — most with a 90-day warranty.
· Fabric/textile recycling: SVdP accepts all manner of clothing and textiles as donations, and what can’t be resold in stores is baled in large quantities to be sold on the commodities market; SVdP also sells recycled wiping rags, cut from donated clothing that it is unable to sell, as another way to generate revenue while preventing waste.
